{"id":360440,"date":"2026-07-03T22:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/360440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T22:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:50:11","slug":"ut-austin-professor-developing-low-tech-flood-alarm-after-deadly-2025-hill-country-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/360440\/","title":{"rendered":"UT Austin professor developing low-tech flood alarm after deadly 2025 Hill Country floods"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A year after floods killed over 130 people<\/a> in Central Texas, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic<\/a>, a University of Texas at Austin hydrology professor is developing a simple outdoor flood alarm designed to give residents a last line of defense.<\/p>\n

Daniella Rempe, an associate professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, began designing the device after the July 4, 2025, floods, working with longtime collaborators David Dralle, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and Jesse Hahm, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University. Rempe said she spent childhood summers at a Texas Hill Country sleepaway camp and wanted to help prevent similar tragedies from happening again, in Texas or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The device, similar to high-water alarms used in septic systems, pairs a water-level sensor with an alarm and warning light. Unlike indoor flood detectors, it’s built to withstand outdoor conditions and doesn’t rely on the internet or a phone app, which Rempe said makes it more reliable in an emergency.<\/p>\n

ALSO | ‘We’ll Have Time’: New flood warning system brings peace of mind to Hope House<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’re trying to fill an important gap in flood safety: a last line of defense device,” Rempe said. “Even in communities like mine that are fortunate to have emergency warning texts and sirens, a device like this can save lives.”<\/p>\n

The alarm is designed to activate when floodwater reaches a preset height near a home, and could be installed by attaching it to a tree or fence post downslope from a residence. It’s built for at least a 10-year battery life with minimal maintenance.<\/p>\n

A provisional patent application for the technology was filed June 22, and UT’s research commercialization unit, Discovery to Impact, has helped fund a small business, RiseAlert LLC, to bring the device to market. The design phase is complete, and the team is now moving into prototype testing, though Rempe said the company is seeking investors before production can begin.<\/p>\n

“Flash floods are a global hazard,” Rempe said. “Our goal is to make outdoor flood alarms as affordable and easy to install and maintain as smoke detectors.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A year after floods killed over 130 people in Central Texas, including 27 campers and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-360440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}